Tag Archives: lgbt rights

Progress on Blue Trifecta Sodomy Repeal (End of April 2023)

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As of 28 April 2023:

  • Maryland: HB0131, decriminalizing oral sex, is still waiting for governor’s signature
  • Massachusetts: H1640/S913 have been reconciled and are sitting in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary
  • Michigan: two House bills (HB4431 and HB4432), both introduced 4/19/23. Twitter user @LGBTmarriage notes that neither bill repeals “the ‘gross indecency’ laws that also ban consensual private gay and straight sex (750.338, 338a and 338b).” Hope to see this fixed.
  • Minnesota: HF91 making the rounds in committees. Companion SF70 is in second reading.

ONCE AGAIN, it really shouldn’t be taking this long to remove some archaic swords of Damocles from over the heads of LGBT people in blue trifecta states.

Somewhat honorable mention goes to Texas where a bill to repeal the state’s highly-discriminatory ban on gay sex has received majority sponsorship for potential passage. This is somewhat honorable because the bill (drafted by a Democrat) contains a “compromise” proviso preserving existing legislation stating that “homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public” (Christian bullshit as usual).

Will these four blue trifectas repeal their sodomy laws in 2023?

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Maryland. Massachusetts. Michigan. Minnesota.

All four of these states start with M’s. All four have Democratic trifectas – Democrats controlling their governor’s mansions and both houses of their legislatures. And, as of 2023, all four have bans on gay sex on their books.

I can excuse Michigan and Minnesota (somewhat). Michigan only just gained a Democratic trifecta for the first time since 1983. Minnesota last had a trifecta in 2013-2014, but it was the first time they had such since 1978.

But Massachusetts and Maryland failing to repeal their bans on gay sex despite having two terms of “moderate” Republican governors and long-time Democratic supermajorities in both houses is inexcusable. Maryland had a bill in 2022 which passed almost unanimously in their House of Delegates but died in Senate committee. Massachusetts had a bill in 2022 which was renumbered, and renumbered again, before passing the Senate and then dying in a House committee.

Embarrassing. A waste.

And now a threat thanks to Clarence Thomas’ written attack on Lawrence v. Texas, which has not received any statutory backing federally since 2003 (save for when President Obama signed a repeal of a consensual gay sex ban for the military in the 2014 NDAA).

Meanwhile, trans-hating, gay-hating Alabama managed to repeal their own sodomy law in 2019 (while cleaning up their criminal code). Utah also did the same in the same year. Trans-hating, gay-hating Idaho repealed theirs last March (in response to a lawsuit).

Well, at least Michigan stands the likeliest chance to repeal theirs this year, but only because the larger law which criminalizes gay sex (Act 328 of 1931) also criminalizes abortion, blasphemy, adultery and more.

But the clock is now ticking on all four aforementioned blue trifecta states – Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota – to repeal these stupid laws.

And, while I’m on it, it’s on Georgia’s Democratic legislators to show the give a shit about LGBT people by filing a bill to repeal O.C.G.A. § 16-6-2. What are you waiting for?

UPDATE: Here are the bills for this year:

  • Maryland HB0131 (SB0054)
  • Massachusetts HD.1777/SD.203
  • Michigan bills HB4006 and SB2 somehow miss the bans on sodomy, fornication, blasphemy, etc?
  • Minnesota HF 91/SF 70 (would repeal abortion restrictions and possibly several sexual offenses)

Other unrelated bills I’m watching from these legislatures:

Bills from legislatures where I’m not expecting much good:

2022 is a Banner Year for Same-sex Partnerships in Japan

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Despite some legal setbacks, many Japanese jurisdictions have moved ahead with strengthening recognition and registration of same-sex couples:

  • A record number of cities and wards enacted partnership registries on a single day (1 April)
  • Tokyo is set to (finally) establish a prefecture-wide partnership registry on 1 November
  • Saga and Fukuoka prefectures, both on Kyushu, established a mutual recognition agreement (18 August), the first between prefectures.
  • Crystal ball notes:
    • I would not be surprised if mutual recognition between prefectural governments becomes more of a thing in lieu of any national-level recognition
    • In Taiwan’s spree of local registries from 2015 to 2018 prior to same-sex marriage, at least one agreement was made, this being between Taipei and Kaohsiung city governments.
    • While Shibuya in Tokyo was the first in Japan to create a partnership registry, the city of Fukuoka was the first to establish a mutual recognition agreement with other cities, and has done so mostly with other cities’ registries on the island of Kyushu.
    • Most other cities which have established these mutual recognition agreements have mostly done so within the same prefecture.
    • This agreement between Saga and Fukuoka is likely to do a lot of advancement for the cause of same-sex civil recognition in Japan, cutting some red tape.
    • Saga and Fukuoka are two of eight prefectures with same-sex partnerships created since 2019, with three others (Tochigi, Shizuoka and Tokyo) joining throughout the autumn. Saga and Fukuoka are also two prefectures with registries which border each other.
    • Aomori and Akita, which also have registries, also border each other in Northern Honshu, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they also make an agreement soon.
    • With Tochigi enacting their registry on 1 September, I wouldn’t be surprised at a mutual agreement between Tochigi, Ibaraki and Gunma.
    • Based on the above, why are Saitama and Kanagawa holding out on prefectural registries?

LGBT, Minority Rights Focus of Several Bills Signed in Last Legislative Session | Diversity | Agenda | KCET

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California has really progressed on LGBT rights this past session. Cheers to Gov. Brown and the California Legislature Dems in Sacramento!

Now if only the regular police patrol were not armed, and gun control applied to both the government and the public. Hopefully someone can take up that idea next session.

Link: LGBT, Minority Rights Focus of Several Bills Signed in Last Legislative Session | Diversity | Agenda | KCET.